When the ancient Polynesians invented surfing, they often used a paddle to help them navigate. Fast-forward a few millennia, and Stand-Up Paddleboarding, or SUP, finds itself trendy again. Part of its increasing popularity is that standing upright allows surfers to spot waves more easily and thus catch more of them, multiplying the fun factor. Paddling back to the wave becomes less of a strain as well. The ability to cruise along on flat inland water, surveying the sights, is another advantage. Finally, its a good core workout. If youre sold on the idea, schedule an intro SUP lesson, free with board and paddle rental, and you may find yourself riding the waves like a Polynesian king.More

In the past 30 years, light artists have reimagined an art form that has always had the ability to turn the night sky, or a simple window, into luminescence. Last fall, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts turned its southern glass wall into a parade of sound-sensing lights, Lightswarm, that changes with the movements of nearby people and things. Future Cities Lab, the San Francisco design company behind Lightswarm, has originated another notable light sculpture. Located by the YBCA's steps at 701 Mission, Murmur Wall will light up in arresting ways as it incorporates local trending search engine results and social media postings. Onlookers can offer their own contributions, which will feed into the Murmur Wall's data stream and light up the sculpture. What's trending in San Francisco? If you're walking by the YBCA, you can see firsthand — at least through light patterns that reflect the city's volatile internet habits.
Murmur Wall debuts Thursday at 6 p.m. and continues through May 31, 2017, at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St., S.F. Free; 415-978-2700 or ybca.org. More

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Once upon a time, extreme metal bands opted to contort their logos into the most stylized mutations possible as a way to visually represent their music, and as a proud testament to the obscurity of their appeal. By now, it's all become a bad joke, and you're likelier to find the sludgiest doom crust ensemble representing themselves in simple Helvetica than in the arcane designs of old.

Still, as the fine fellows at Metal Sucks have already keenly observed, the illegible band logo is still a fairly healthy tradition. So let's look at 10 of the most insanely unreadable black metal logos -- several of which represent Bay Area bands -- to see what stories they might tell. (Hat tip to Metal-archives.com for hosting most of these logos.)

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10. Deathspell Omega

Granted, if you look at it a certain way, it looks like it says "Deathspew." But the irony is that our list's most legible logo belongs to its most inscrutable band. Deathspell Omega is a French occult black metal band that offers NO interviews, NO live engagements, NO self-portraits, and NO names to its rabidly devoted cult following. Go ahead: Attempt to find A THING about these guys' identities. Even the Internet has its limits.

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9. Panopticon

Part of the ever-growing movement of bedroom black metal, Panopticon hails from Louisville, Kentucky. Despite its experimental leanings and the incorporation of bluegrass elements into its deeply excoriating music, Panopticon keeps it decidedly old school with a slightly scuffed, slightly ornate logo script. At long last, the stylized logo tells us something about the artist before we hear them. It has a semiotic power that works, even in an era where we don't have to judge album covers with our eyes only. Take the cover of Panopticon's latest, Kentucky:

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The logo subverts the pastoral beauty, letting us know that while we're not just getting brutal black metal, we're not about to hear only Appalachian idyll, either. The two aesthetics discomfort one another, an effect that yields good art. That's about as high a recommendation as one can make for having a ridiculously over-stylized and very-hard-to-discern logo.

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8. Nachtmystium

One of the reasons it's so hard to decipher most black metal band logos is they tend not to be words, but rather weird portmanteaus pulling from multiple dialects. Hence these Chicagoans, who've dubbed themselves something to the effect of "hidden night place."

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7. Mayhem

Interesting to note that one of the founding fathers of black metal has one of the easiest to read logos, though a less-seasoned eye might still balk at it. Still, after years of controversy from within and without, it's probably just easier to have a somewhat readable logo at this point.

6. Darkthrone

Equally influential black metal legends Darkthrone split the difference perfectly with this utterly unique and much-imitated splatter of a logo. It's got personality and about as high of a split-second recognition value as one can get in this genre.

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Sub Pop recording artists 'clipping.' brought their brand of noise-driven experimental hip hop to the closing night of 2016's San Francisco Electronic Music Fest this past Sunday. The packed Brava Theater hosted an initially seated crowd that ended the night jumping and dancing against the front of the stage. The trio performed a set focused on their recently released Sci-Fi Horror concept album, 'Splendor & Misery', then delved into their dancier and more aggressive back catalogue, and recent single 'Wriggle'.
Opening performances included local experimental electronic duo 'Tujurikkuja' and computer music artist 'Madalyn Merkey.'"